Do you need to carry your original passport when entering Mount Rinjani National Park?

Yes, carry your original passport if you can keep it secure, because the park’s FAQ instructs foreign visitors to bring a passport or KITAS and gate staff compare the QR ticket against identity documents at check-in. Indonesian citizens use their KTP. The identity check is what makes your permit yours, so arriving with nothing that matches the ticket is a real risk of being refused entry.

The honest complication is that practice on copies varies. The park FAQ names the passport or KITAS, one local operator describes a passport copy being accepted at check-in, and another tells guests to bring the original. Those instructions conflict, which tells you the gate practice has some flexibility and some inconsistency, and the safe position is to satisfy the strictest version of the requirement rather than gamble on the loosest.

Our standard advice is the original plus a backup: carry the physical passport in a dry bag or zip lock inside your daypack or a secure body pocket, and also keep a legible offline photograph of the biodata page on your phone, plus a printed copy in your duffel. If the gate wants the original, you have it. If the mountain weather or a fall puts the original at risk on the trail itself, you can leave it with your luggage after check-in and carry the copy, since the identity verification happens at the official entry point, not at every trail post.

Two practical points make this easier. First, the registration and check-in gate is a defined place, often the trekking center at the village start, distinct from the trail’s Pos 1 marker, so the passport is needed once at entry rather than repeatedly on the trail. Second, hotels and homestays near the gates, including ours, store valuables reliably, so you do not need to sleep with a passport in a tent for three nights.

Confirm the current gate practice with your operator before departure, since requirements shift with policy. But when in doubt, the original passport, a phone photo, and a printed copy is the combination that has never left one of our guests standing at the gate.